Monthly Archives: January 2014

There are so many wonderful things about Japan, but after what happened today, my admiration for the land of the rising sun has been cemented forever.

Last night, Edu and I were around Shinjuku Station following a nomikai (drinking party), when we decided to grab a late night dinner at McDonald’s. As the last train had already come and gone, this meant that we would need to take a cab back home. Anyway, this morning, as I was heading out for work, I realized that my wallet was missing.I didn’t know the name of the cab company we took, and I honestly couldn’t recall whether or not I even had my wallet with me when we exited the taxi. After desperately rummaging through the apartment, I finally resigned myself to the fact that I must have dropped it somewhere between the McDonald’s in Shinjuku and my apartment in Shibuya ward.

One good thing that came out of this was that I learned the word for wallet in Japanese: 財布 (saifu).

After going to the koban (local police station) to file a missing articles report, I walked back home, retracing my steps from the previous night.

To my surprise, I noticed that one of the delivery lockers in the mail room had my apartment number on it, indicating that there was a package or something inside for me.

And there it was — my missing wallet, perfectly intact, with all of my cash still inside.

Someone must have found it, and then taken the time to deliver it back to my apartment.

In no other country (at least, none that I’ve lived in) would this ever happen. At best, back home, someone would return your wallet, but expect some sort of reward for doing so. Whoever had found my wallet didn’t even leave any contact information for me to thank them.

That’s it. It’s decided. I am staying here forever. I am raising my children here, and they will be decent human beings because Japan is the best country on earth.

I ♥ Japan.

Last month, I received a small consolation for having to wait until February to buy a PlayStation 4 (Japan is the last territory to get the PS4). At FromSoftware’s bōnenkai (Japanese end-of-year drinking party), I was lucky enough to come away with a brand-spankin’ new PlayStation Vita TV (one of the perks of working at a video game studio, I suppose).

Released last November, so far, it’s only available in Japan, although I’ve heard that it’s also set to launch this month in a couple more Asian countries.

I realize now that this photo makes no sense at all. I should have also mentioned that we won some Nintendo 3DS games at the party raffle as well. We were both clearly more excited about the Vita TV.

The cool thing about the PS Vita TV is that, as the name suggests, you can hook it up to your TV and play Vita games with a DualShock controller.

Unboxed.

My best hand modeling.

It’s no PS4, but it is pretty neat. Plus, at least now I’ll have something to tide me over until next month.

Like last year, I was sadly not able to go back home for the holidays. However, it wasn’t entirely a bad thing, as it gave me the opportunity to experience New Year’s in Japan for the first time. It was quite wonderful seeing a different culture’s take on a familiar holiday. Oshōgatsu (Japanese New Year) in Japan is definitely a more family-oriented holiday than it is in Canada. Most businesses are closed from the 1st to the 3rd of January, and so everyone takes the opportunity to spend time with their families and engage in the numerous customs associated with oshōgatsu. For our first New Year’s in Japan, we were able to take part in one of those traditions — hatsumōde, the first shrine or temple visit of the year.